Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Our Pennsylvania, High-Fence elk paradise is for sale

Well this post didn't elicit the response poster hoped.

Maybe you just woke up on the wrong side of the bed but if a guy had 600 acres in PA that's a pretty good way to manage the ground.

I have never killed a bull on private, much less high fenced, but if OP is happy I don't see a thing wrong.

Seems a lot better than subdividing for rich NYC liberals to have a vacation home.


As hunters we might be better sticking together than eating our own.

Elk are Grazers just like a cow how many cows will the 600 acres support? there's your answer, Deer are Browsers not Grazers and do not compete with Elk for Food. Rio7

Well there is no doubt that 600 acres is a large parcel for an individual to own.
But in the overall sceme of things it is not in that area of Pa.
Not only that, but how many Elk and Deer will a parcel of that size support?
In the mid 70s, when the Pa Game Commission placed the man they credited with saving the Pa bear population, in the job of now saving the deer herd, his plan was to drastically reduce the herd size.
Especially in the area where they were trying to increase the size of the Elk herd.
There was much outcry over that, and they had a big meeting at a now defunct sportsmans club called Mountain Country sportsman near the Cameron/Potter county line on route 872.
It seemed as though the entire staff of the game commission was present and defending the proposal.
When pressed, they claimed that due to the present size of the trees and lack of browse, the area could only support 2 deer per square mile. At that time, the Elk herd wasent even part of the argument, just the deer herd.
But, is it logical that a say 300# elk would consume twice the amount a 125 pound deer would?
So now were going to put a high fence around 600 acres and expect a huntable size herd to survive there?
Does anybody here have any idea as to how many large food plots the game commission has created in the Elk region over the past dozen years or so?
That in addition to many miles of natural gas pipelines and large power lines thruout that area?
Not to mention all the yards they occupy, and where many end up being shot, during the (ahem) annual hunt.
And their claim at least is that the entire Elk herd is about 1000 animals in the whole region, which is huge.
So id say that somebody is paying to feed the animals in order for them to survive on 600 acres.
Especially in years with a poor mast crop like acorns.

600 acres doesn't sound like much to someone from out west, but in the eastern hardwoods it's a pretty good spread.

A couple things.
It was much closer to 2000 when Dr Gary Alt was put in charge of PA deer.
As was said, elk and deer eat different stuff. Elk graze. You can feed a couple hundred herefords on 600 acres. I'm sure with "management " you could have quite a few elk on this piece. Certainly enough to keep a family entertained.

If I had the extra change, I'd buy it.